The Moody Blues Quotes
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I know Goldilocks quite well. That's what I call Phil Collins. He's been more successful than me and a better drummer than me but I still got a head full of hair. So there.
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She is classically trained, but amazing enough, she's got a rock 'n' roll heart. She was playing bass in a rock band. ... It's still different. Ray had that raw, don't-give-a-damn rock 'n' roll energy, and that lovely voice. Of course, you can't work with someone for 40 years and not miss him.
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Although my first instrument was actually the violin, I prefer the piano as my main instrument. I love harpsichord and church organ and, of course, I love all synthesizers, analog and digital, as well as all sorts of percussion instruments, in addition to my beloved Alpine Horn and trumpet. And there's nothing like a Hammond organ and a real Moog synthesizer, or even a real Oberheim. When I played the mellotron, I had special effects tapes of all my albums made and was "playing" them through live concerts or different recordings like "on cue" analog samplers. I liked that part of playing them too, because they provided some very original punctuations in the music.
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We used to think that we were aiming at the head and the heart, rather than the groin. The Stones did raunchy. You need balance. 'The Other Side of Life' was a try to get a really raunchy, dirty song, and it just didn't come out that way. We can't seem to make the crossover.
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Both groups played progressive rock and even though the majority of the music was based on my compositions, the end result was really a group effort, especially in the arrangements. Both groups MAINHORSE and REFUGEE had a different identity, however MAINHORSE had a lead guitarist which made a big difference in the overall sound. We also had much more vocal arrangements in MAINHORSE. But the essence of the music was mine, in both groups.
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John Coltrane was probably my deepest influence, along with Jimi Hendrix, Elvin Jones, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Mahalia Jackson, Ravi Shankar, Art Tatum, Clifford Brown, Eric Dolphy, Oscar Peterson, John Lewis, Bill Evans, Yehudi Menuhin, McCoy Tyner, THE BEATLES, Jimmy Smith, Keith Jarret, Glenn Gould, Aldo Ciccolini, Georgy Cziffra, Dinu Lipatti and Clara Haskil, with whom I worked as a child.
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What is interesting to me is what has happened in the past that has made me who I am today together with all of my musical influences.
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Life is treating me great thank you very much.
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I never felt the need to actually change from being a Moody Blue and doing any solo recording. It is only because The Moody Blues haven’t recorded for over ten years now that I suppose the frustration set in and I really would have liked to have made a new album, and I suddenly realised that in the natural order of things, the album was going to be my own album.